A toddler was punched in the face while sitting on his mother’s lap by a panhandler on the New York City subway on Saturday afternoon.
The New York Post reports that the child’s mother was approached by the female beggar asking for money on the northbound C train in Manhattan. Understandably wanting the stranger to keep her distance, she asked the woman to stay six feet away from her. In response, the woman stepped on her left foot.
“Why did you step on me?” the mother asked her.
That’s when the woman attacked her, hitting the 2-year-old toddler in the face. A witness told police they had to pull the panhandler off of the victims. The suspect fled once the train reached the station.
The panhandler was described as a heavy-set woman in her 40s with a neck tattoo and buzzcut. According to The Post, she was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans, boots, and a white face mask.
The child was taken to Mount Sinai-Saint Luke’s hospital by ambulance with facial injuries. He was treated and released.
